


Something Out of Four

by orphan_account



Category: House M.D.
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-07
Updated: 2010-12-07
Packaged: 2017-10-14 07:17:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account





	Something Out of Four

  
_There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it._  
\- Dale Carnegie

  
**Actions...**   


...don't speak louder than words, House has decided.  Not least because Cuddy gets more pissed at him for a throwaway remark borne out of pain and frustration than she does by him taking a sledgehammer to her bathroom.  No sense of proportion, and her breasts are just another glorious example of that. 

He tries, occasionally, to shut the hell up and do something she can't argue with.  The desk is a nice touch, even though it involves a torturous game of phone tag with her mother, and he hopes he never has to meet the woman on the strength of that experience alone.  House wonders why she never came to thank him, why she never mentions it even when he sits in front of the desk and asks the silent question.  He wonders a lot of things though, and before long there's someone threatening to die just to get his attention.  They move on, they resume their dance a few bars later, and he files it away in the mental folder of puzzles about Cuddy he can't quite solve.

  
**Appearances...**   


...can be deceptive.  He knows, for example, that Cuddy's often revealing wardrobe is not an indication that she's some kind of easy lay.  God, he's been trying to get her back into bed on and off for twenty years, and if that's easy then he really doesn't have the stamina for difficult.

No, she wears those clothes because they look good on her.  She doesn't need the appreciative glances and overheard compliments, but she doesn't turn them down either.  It's like a warrior who goes into battle in the finest armor - it might not always be practical, but it's classier to look amazing while kicking ass.  It's another weapon in her arsenal, because plenty of idiots less stubborn than him have lost an argument to the sway of her hips long before her words finish them off.

Mostly, he appreciates the way she looks because it has nothing to do with him.  Sure, he can enjoy the fringe benefits because he's not _dead_ on the inside, but Cuddy doesn't dress like that just because she sees him every day.  The fact that she doesn't need him, even if she wants him (and wants to throttle him), is sexier than anything in her lingerie drawer.  But you don't throw away a gift just because it comes in nice wrapping.

  
**Words...**   


...are where they do best, all things considered.  Though House knows that at least half the conversations between them are so hostile that even a divorce attorney would find it a bit much, their verbal sparring has been the constant of their relationship.

Whether in the unspoken competition to be the biggest wise-ass, to conjure up the cruelest insult, or to say exactly the right thing at the wrong moment, that's just how they interact.  The wounds heal quicker, or sometimes not at all, but the damage they do is less obvious to outsiders this way.

Cuddy gives as good as she gets, which is intoxicating. House knows there have to be times when he's made her cry, not least when his pain and medication levels are compromised, but she keeps her tears private in order to come back even stronger next time.  A worthy adversary is hard to find, and House knows he's lucky in a way he can't explain that she's stuck around all this time.  Everyone else gave up, or will walk away, but Cuddy can only do those things temporarily.  Usually it's one long shower and a good night's sleep before she realizes they're not done, and House doesn't like to admit he's terrified of the day she might think it's not worth it anymore.

She knows the words that appeal to his nature, knows how to manipulate the man he is instead of the person others seem to wish he could be.  Her sarcasm is polished, sure, but there's always just enough heart behind it to stop it hurting.  He knows she'll forgive almost anything he does, but that the worst of his words have stayed with her.  There's nothing he can do about that, but sometimes he wishes there was.

  
**Meanings...**   


...are the trickiest part of it all.  He wonders if some day there'll be a Greg House dictionary, one that translates biting sarcasm and childish insults into what he wishes he was saying instead.   He thinks Cuddy might understand, most of the time, that there's a quiet bass line playing under the words they both hear in the treble.  She reacts in ways that make him think she gets it, that she's hearing both the spoken and the unspoken and deciding for herself what to believe.

That's why he's playful when he insults her, and flippant when he has news that might otherwise hurt.  If he can't say the things she'd want to hear, then he can at least try to say them in ways she'll appreciate.  House isn't blind, he sees the way her smile broadens at a display of enthusiasm from him, or the way her chest heaves slightly when he begins railing against some restriction or other.  Though he resents playing his piano or guitars for anyone else's benefit, this is a performance he can give willingly, over and over again.

So if they can't say the things they should, or act the way they sometimes want to, at least they get some of it right, some of the time.  House doesn't necessarily put faith in the law of averages, but with Cuddy even one out of four will be enough.  

Because if the alternative is zero, or nothing, House will pick _something_ every time; but only with Cuddy, the exception to almost all of his rules.


End file.
